Art Trail 2018

We're currently preparing the studio on Manchester Road for a new exhibition - 'Fragments' - which will open for the 2018 Rossendale Art Trail during the first weekend in October (6/7th)...also open Friday 5th from 10.30am - 3pm. 

The exhibition will show a selection of the small oil paintings that Dave Pearson created to hang adjacent to the main multi-panel paintings of his Byzantium series. 

Getting ready for Leicester

We're busy preparing paintings, information boards, labels, tools and suchlike for the exhibition of Dave's work at Leicester Grammar School in January.

We've had 9 pieces newly framed for the show - as well as 8 already-framed works that will complete the collection of gouaches and drawings in the exhibition. The centrepieces will be three large-scale paintings - a diptych, a triptych, and a 5 panel piece, 7 metres in length, all over 2 metres in height. The overall theme for the exhibition will be the use of tree images, mythology and folklore within his vast 'Byzantium' period. 

The show opens on the 12th January and runs until April 1st 2018. 

Selecting work

Yesterday Margaret Mytton, joined by Edward Lucie-Smith and Julian Williams, spent the day choosing paintings for the forthcoming exhibition in London.

Above Margaret, Chris Pearson and Edward look through photographs of paintings from the two enormous 'Byzantium' series to select paintings for the Bermondsey show. 6 pieces were selected - although these would each be in the form of large diptychs or triptychs - one is made up of 5 large canvas panels. 

These paintings will make up the core of the exhibition, but decisions were also made to include a group of self-portraits, some of the work Dave made during the period of his hospitalisation and treatment for cancer, and other examples of his wide-ranging and prolific work, including some playful assemblages and constructions Dave made for the Globe Arts Studio Christmas exhibitions.

Split Tree Warriors - and another busy week

We recently sold four of the 'outliers' from Byzantium - meaning the secondary panels that Dave designed to hang round the main panels of the Byzantium series, usually related to the architecture of the gallery spaces in which he was showing that wonderful series. Although the central Byzantium pieces are not currently for sale the outlying panels are, and those above were purchased recently. These are designed for 'The Split Tree', and so they are known as 'The Split Tree Warriors'. The buyer kindly sent us a photograph of them in situ at their new home (above); below is a photo he took when they were hanging at the See Gallery. 

Meanwhile The House of the Nobleman exhibition has opened in London; Margaret and I are talking with Edward Lucie-Smith about a possible new date for the exhibition in Bermondsey and I've finally managed to move the Artlook software to a dedicated laptop with the help and support of Charles Davies of Artlook. 

Small developments

Untypically the three of us who make up the Trust met once again this week. This time to sort out a satisfactory arrangement with Julian Williams and Jackie Taylor (who together make up the See Gallery) with regard to the increasing amount of work they are doing for us - dealing with sales of work; framing and delivering paintings to buyers, and generally doing a lot of the house-keeping jobs that we don't have time for. Although Margaret and I both have busy full-time jobs, we're also closely involved with Trust business on a day-to-day basis but the simple fact is that the amount of work has increased recently. In part this is to do with interest generated by the film, but also the success of the Reveal Open Studio weekend, and our realisation that we now need to concern ourselves with protecting the most vulnerable work, build on the interest following the film, and continue to catalogue some of the key pieces of work. 

One of these key series is, naturally, the truly awesome Byzantium series of paintings. One of which, Bridge Street, is shown above. Made up of two panels - like most of Byzantium its a group of panels - it's nearly 2.5 metres high by over 2.75 metres width. Now, with Margaret Mytton having photographed the series, I've been able to bring these images together with the measurements and finally add them to the catalogue of work.  

Images for the film

Margaret Mytton is working hard to provide high-quality images for Derek Smith's film about Dave, and sending him photoshopped images such as these, from the installation of the awe-inspiring Byzantium exhibition at the Holden Gallery at Manchester Metropolitan University.